Quantum mechanics states that an electron doesn't exist as a single point, but spreads around the nucleus in a cloud known as an orbital. The soft blue spheres and split clouds seen in the images show two arrangements of the electrons in their orbitals in a carbon atom. (www.insidescience.org/research/first_detailed_photos_of_atoms)
Wave functions of the first five atomic orbitals. The three 2p orbitals each display a single angular node that has an orientation and a minimum at the center. (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom)
Carbon 6C is presented in classic technical presentations as the image above, it is easy to present its "value" in this way but in reality the atom looks different as first images show. In that case a proton might very well be a (8) ball with a magnetic like polar field around it, being the "electron".
